Pierre Sage has issued a fitness update ahead of Crystal Palace’s Carabao Cup tie with Fulham on Wednesday evening. 

Palace will be desperate to get back to winning ways after another difficult defeat at the weekend. Despite dominating for large parts of the game, a fifteen minute spell in the second half left Palace chasing a two goal deficit, which they ultimately could not overcome. 

Palace have enjoyed visiting Craven Cottage in recent years, including earlier in the season when they won 2-3 from behind courtesy of two goals from Tyrick Mitchell and a late strike from Ben Chilwell. 

Dean Henderson has been missing from the starting eleven for some time now. He had initially picked up an injury to his ankle in Palace’s final pre-season game against SC Freiburg, which has left him out of contention for nine games now. 

Walter Benítez has deputised in his place, and whilst the Argentine made strong saves in the win against Nottingham Forest, in the last two games, he’s conceded every shot on target he’s faced. 

Not only have Palace missed Henderson’s quality, but they’ve dearly missed the contributions of their club captain. 

“I think he will play on Wednesday”, was Sage’s verdict when he sat down to preview the clash with Fulham. 

Jørgen Strand Larsen took a nasty challenge in Istanbul last week, which resulted in Beşiktaş going down to ten men for a straight red card. 

The striker had only just come on to replace Jean-Philippe Mateta and was withdrawn after turning his ankle, an injury which at the time looked a lot worse than it turns out to be. 

“We will see on Wednesday for Strand Larsen, because he received, as you saw, a tackle [against Beşiktaş and his ankle twisted.”

Ismaïla Sarr is another player whose fitness has been a huge hindrance for Palace this season, the side missing their top scorer from last campaign for the majority of the season so far. 

Sage confirmed that he will miss out on this cup clash too as they continue to prioritise getting him back to full fitness. 

“For Ismaïla Sarr, it’s difficult, because his groin is really making him struggle. He was able to play 15-30 minutes. We tried to push more in Lyon. He played 60, but it’s really difficult for him. And I think you saw in his performance, he ran less, especially with high-speed runs.”

“We spoke together yesterday and we took the decision to leave him out, because he needs treatment to come and help the team with 100% of his capacity.”

With the Europa League, Carabao Cup and Premier League, Palace have been non-stop in October. The side has not been helped with the fact that the Premier League sides they’ve faced, aside from Brighton, have not had to juggle the same demands of midweek football. 

The case will be the same on Saturday evening, when Palace travel to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to face a Spurs side fresh off the back of victory against Chelsea, and with a week's rest in between the games.

“We have to deal with that, because we need to do some rotations. A lot of players play a lot of minutes in a row, and now we have to let them recover.”

This means there could be opportunities for the likes of Óscar Mingueza and Darío Osorio to come into the starting lineup, as well as another opportunity for Honest Ahanor to prove his worth after an underwhelming performance at Brighton.  

“In a week, with a game on Sunday, a game on Saturday, with a game on Wednesday…it’s a big session.”

It’s not the first time in his managerial career that Sage has had to balance the demands of European competition. Lyon were competing in the Europa League when he was in position there, but Sage expressed a desire to keep players in their rhythm and not disrupt the flow of the side too much. 

“I had the experience in Lyon, especially when we played in the Europa League, when you let too many players recover on the game during the week, they lose their rhythm. That’s why, for some of them, they need recovery, but others need to play to have the rhythm for Saturday in Tottenham. It depends on their profile.”

Palace fans can expect a somewhat changed lineup, but there will likely be continuity in some areas too.